3 Tips on How to Avoid Distractions at Work to Prevent Executive Burnout

TeoLazarev

We’ve all heard the adage warning against all work and no play.

“There’s an ingrained mythology around startups that not only celebrates burn-out efforts, but damn well requires it. It’s the logical outcome of trying to compress a lifetime’s worth of work into the abbreviated timeline of a venture fund.”

Nearly every hard working executive knows that living almost exclusively with your nose to the grindstone will cause epic burnout. Yet the typical C-suite executive position is almost perfectly designed to burn someone out. A Harvard Medical School study found that 96% of senior leaders feel somewhat burned out, and a third describe their burnout as extreme.

“I don’t know if we’re going to make it. And there are a lot of others around here who have the same feeling. We’re all demoralized.”

But while breaks are an invaluable step in the daily process of maintaining your physical energy and mental clarity, breaks don’t get to the core of why burnouts happen.

Most often, burnouts happenafter a considerable amount of constant distractions have piled up and continuously derailed you from your ever-growing workload.

It takes on average

23 minutes and 15 seconds

for one’s focus to return

after a distraction.

Below, I’ll discuss how to avoid distractions at work.

1. Create a Task List

Whereas distractions come out of left field and pull your focus away from the task at hand, usually without your consent, tasks are typically self-imposed and usually have a time limit associated with them. Most importantly, they are planned in advance.

A study done by UC Irvine and Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany shows that while tasks that get interrupted usually get done on time, they only get accomplished because we “compensate for interruptions by working faster, but this comes at a price: experiencing more stress, higher frustration, time pressure and effort.” The study further shows that it takes on average 23 minutes and 15 seconds for one’s focus to return after a distraction.

Many distractions that occur in the workplace come from colleagues—repeatedly asking advice, sending emails that demand immediate attention, or having noisy discussions or phone calls in your vicinity (to name just a few). Distractions also come from vendors, partners, industry allies, friends, and family as well. A main concern with constant interruptions is that many executives find themselves forgetting what they were doing previously. This is of special concern if your task involves intense concentration.

One way to avoid this is to create a task management list for yourself that includes two to three big things you want to have completed by the end of the day or week (i.e. empty your inbox). Then, expanding on this list, write down each step to take toward the completion of this task. As you finish, physically remove that task off your list. This removal serves not only as a reminder of what you were doing when you refocus from distractions (or return from breaks) but it also serves as a motivational method.

2. delegate to others

Have you fallen into the trap of similarly ambitious executives and entrepreneurs who believe that they, and they alone, hold the keys to getting everything done well and on time? Most likely, your thought process swings back-and-forth between “If I work hard enough and fast enough, I can get it all done,” and “No one can get it done better or faster than I can.”

Typically, you find yourself at a stalemate with yourself and your business’s forward progress. And somewhere in the back of your mind is a voice telling you that ending the stalemate is not only crucial to the growth and success of your business, but essential for your health and the health of your business.

The best way to combat this “I got it!” tendency is to make delegation adjustments. If you are having a difficult time accomplishing a task because you are being pulled in several directions, it’s important to determine if you are the only one who can complete the task or if someone else can do it. If someone else can do it, by all means let them do it!

Likewise, if you realize that a team member is struggling to complete a specific task, perhaps that task is not in their wheelhouse. Reevaluate your team members on a regular basis to pinpoint their strengths and assign jobs to the right person.

3. hire a virtual assistant

Another way to combat burnout is to hire a virtual assistant. A virtual administrative assistant can assist you in a variety of ways, including:

Prospect Development and Lead Generation

Identify potential prospects, research their contact information, and give you the context to reach out to them

Conduct initial and/or ongoing research

Set up a system or database to store all research

Nurture and Grow Your Client Base

Monitor relationships and referrals by ensuring regular touch points through investment updates and other communications

Follow up with customers and clients

Send thank you emails and other reminders

Liaison between you and your team members

Email management and filtering

Reply to customers and client’s inquiries via email

Answer inbound calls on your behalf

Make outbound calls on your behalf

Answer support tickets

Document Preparation and Management

Ensure proposals, key investment documentation, and other reports are ready when you need them

CONCLUSION

While breaks are healthy and recommended, it is always best to avoid and head off distractions. Whether it is changing your work environment to better prepare those around you to do their job without your assistance or creating a system to better manage your inbox, cutting out distractions in three very simple ways is your best option for reducing or eliminating executive burnout.